Southwest Airlines' New Boarding / Seating Process

I'm loyal to Hawaiian (Alaska) Airlines - except when Southwest releases promos.  I recently took advantage of a WN promo, which meant the first time I would be flying WN ever since they implemented seat assignments and a new boarding process.

Open seating has its pros and cons . . . earlier this year, before assigned seating started, I booked a last-minute (as in 2 hours before) flight on WN from LAS to HNL because my original flights on UA were delayed and it was possible that it could've been severely delayed or even cancelled (I take advantage of Sam's Club promos and stock-up when they have WN GCs on sale - even when not on sale it's a good deal; I also had credit to use up, and the one-way flight was very reasonably priced).  

I didn't want to chance not going home that day, so I booked on WN knowing we were getting the last boarding assignments (C50s!) and I prepped the boys that we would most likely be seated in middle seats next to strangers.  The majority wanted to go home earlier vs wait and see, so I cancelled my UA flight (used miles; even though we were already checked-in I could easily cancel via the app and my miles were immediately credited and I was refunded the fees).  

Well, it was a miracle that we ended up all sitting together / near other, with my boys all in the very last row together, me in the aisle next to them, and my husband in the aisle in front of them.  The luck was thanks to most people not wanting to be near the lavatories and late arriving passengers.

And we ended up back home 6 hours earlier (our original flight on an UA was delayed overall by just a few hours).

With assigned seating, such a dilemma where you get stuck in a middle seat is easier to avoid (or easier to prepare for).  

I read many, many, many complaints about WN's new process, but my recent flight between HNL to ITO went smoothly, even with a 15-minute delayed boarding due to a late inbound flight (and we still arrived on time!).

I have no priority (CC, AL, OR ALP), so I booked a choice fare with a standard window seat (the row was full).  I checked-in and got boarding group 4.  I could've bought priority boarding for $10, but I wasn't concerned about overhead bin space (which is a big reason why many choose to board early), and instead I opted to upgrade my seat for $15 to a preferred seat - and I chose an empty row (which remained empty for the flight).

I had to recheck in to get a new bp, and once again got boarding group 4.

Boarding went rather smoothly, and overhead bin space was not much of an issue, especially since it was a light fight.  Pretty much all the preferred rows only had 1 passenger on each side of the A/C. 

I was unaware if people tried to move to a different open row in a different seat category, which I've read has been an issue on some flights, but this flight was overall uneventful.  

I prefer assigned seating and am happy with this change.